Original subtitles

Knock, knock.

Movies and explosions...

Son of a bitch!

...go hand-in-hand.

Here's my invitation.

No one could do it any better than.

Arnold.

Arnold.

Arnold.

Arnold.

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

To be or not to be. Not to be.

From blowing up the box office.

Why wouldn't you want Arnold in an action movie?

Yeah.

To shattering the Hollywood mold.

Good. Now we're having fun.

The thought that an Austrian bodybuilder

could become a Hollywood star.

Dino fought against Arnold.

- Because of his accent. - His accent.

Perhaps he didn't understand you.

I understood him.

He's most disagreeable and he has irritated me.

From early victories.

When I saw the film I said,

"Wow."

A line around the block.

To crushing failures.

Oh shit!

It was this huge, beautiful production,

but it didn't quite connect.

Th film was a flop.

Get to the chopper!

A larger-than-life personality.

He's got a big ego.

No question about that.

Was it dedication or obsession?

Arnold is a very driven person.

He wanted to improve himself.

He embodies the American dream.

Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Even though he came here from another country.

They fell in love with Arnold.

Hear the stories behind his greatest stunts.

Can Arnold jump off a cliff

and land in a pool of water

that looks like it's about three feet deep?

Arnold's literally running for his life.

God damn it!

We had a lot of guys on fire.

It almost killed Arnold.

Lexicon-shaping catchphrases.

I'll be back.

I let him go.

What a hothead.

It's not a tumor!

It's turbo time!

You're fired.

Let off some steam, Bennett.

The marriage that changed his life.

He actually left the set, got married to Maria Shriver.

- There were challenges. - Son of a bitch.

Arnold wanted to get the fuck out of the jungle.

He got violently ill,

but he was out there filming that scene.

You're one ugly motherfucker.

Just inspired the hell out of everybody.

And then there were the challengers.

Compete with Stallone.

Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Jackie Chan. Tom Cruise!

Hear the never-told adventures.

And all the females started giggling

when Arnold took his robe off.

I'm on my knees painting his ass and his hips.

"Hey Arnold, how's your family?"

Of the world's greatest action star.

The journey of Arnold Schwarzenegger

is just about as epic as any human alive.

As his co-stars and collaborators...

It's nice to get this off my chest.

I don't know if I should talk about this, but--

...reveal how Arnold became--

Seven-time Mr. Olympia.

The governor of California.

The highest paid--

Biggest, baddest action star.

American icon. The biggest thing ever.

And cut!

In July of 1947,

in the sleepy village of Thal, Austria,

Gustav and Aurelia welcomed a baby boy.

Mama!

Arnold Schwarzenegger,

a name that young Austrians wanted the world to know,

refusing to let anyone stand in his way.

Mama!

In Austria, he would go to this gym every day

and work out,

and one day he gets to the gym and it's closed.

While most would welcome

an excuse to skip the gym,

Arnold on the other hand--

He went and found the biggest rock that he could find

and heaved it through the window,

shattered the entire window

just so he can get inside and do his daily workout.

Schwarzenegger wasn't afraid of jail.

He was afraid of falling behind.

He knew he couldn't miss a day

because he knew what he had to do to become successful.

Arnold saw an opportunity in building his body

to build a better life.

He came from no money, he was nothing in the beginning.

They had no plumbing, they had no toilet.

Arnold is the most self-driven man I've ever seen.

You don't become the seven-time Mr. Olympia

not being a driven person.

But before all that, at the age of just 20,

Arnold became the youngest ever

to win the Mr. Universe in the UK,

which in 1968 drew him to the mecca of bodybuilding:

Muscle Beach, USA.

There was times that Schwarzenegger

actually would sleep on the beach

because he didn't have a place to stay.

Arnold was no stranger to being broke,

but in Los Angeles, he would find his chosen family.

Joe Gold gave him a place to stay

when he first moved to LA.

That's the gym he was training at.

Thanks to Joe Gold,

Arnold was able to focus on the only thing that mattered,

outworking everyone.

In 1970, Arnold's only been in America for two years.

And it was that second year Arnold would win

the Mr. World, Mr. Universe, and Mr. Olympia.

He is the top bodybuilder in the world.

Even though bodybuilding

was a niche sport in the '70s,

Arnold's success and onstage charisma

transcended fitness culture

and caught the eye of Hollywood producers

looking to fill the role of a legendary warrior.

No, not yet!

But Arnold did land the lead in--

"Hercules in New York."

The premise?

Hercules grows bored of Mount Olympus.

I am tired of the same old faces.

And attempts to live a mortal life

in the Big Apple.

It's a low-budget movie. They don't care if he can act.

My name is Hercules.

And if you're wondering

why they don't care if he can act.

My name is Hercules.

They dubbed him.

- Where are you going? - Ashore.

Did the captain give you permission?

No. Hercules needs no permission.

After doing "Hercules in New York,"

I decided that I really want to get into this business

and I really want to get big and learn the craft of acting.

Soon Arnold would come under the wing

of a most unlikely mentor.

Lucille Ball was absolutely instrumental

in my early career.

The sitcom star was no stranger

to actors with heavy accents.

You can understand me, can you?

Well now, yes, I've learned to listen with an accent.

Ball never saw Arnold act,

but she knew a star when she saw one.

Now you're really hitting below the belt.

- Did I hit you? - Yeah.

She'd say, "Look, I saw you yesterday

on 'The Merv Griffin Show.'

You were funny, you have a great sense of humor.

That's very unique with someone of your build."

She said, "I want you to come in and read for me."

A common acting term used for auditions.

Something Arnold would know if he ever had an audition.

I had no idea what she meant by "read."

So I tried to read it like you read a book.

That's a swell way to get off to a lousy start.

It was a total disaster.

But Lucille Ball built an empire

on seeing things that no one else could see.

She came, she said, "Oh, this was fabulous.

You are hired!"

I am Rico!

It was primetime movie of the week

presented as a sitcom called--

"Happy Anniversary and Goodbye."

Lucille Ball had legitimized Schwarzenegger,

opening the doors to Hollywood.

Taxi!

One of his first major films

was a film called "Stay Hungry."

The film featured a future Terminator.

Nice night for a walk.

A future dude.

And they pee on my rug?

And a future Freddy Krueger.

But at that time, Arnold was playing a role

in his wheelhouse.

"Stay Hungry" was about bodybuilders.

Make the thighs burn. Good.

Schwarzenegger was paid only 12,000

to play a bodybuilder, Joe Santo,

but Arnold made the most of the opportunity.

He wins a Golden Globe for Best New Actor

for "Stay Hungry."

The Golden Globe elevated Arnold,

while his next film would immortalize him.

"Pumping Iron," a documentary set

to bring the world of bodybuilding into the mainstream.

The focus is going to be the so-called rivalry

for the next Mr. Olympia

between Lou Ferrigno and Arnold for this title.

I've not been beaten for the last seven years.

Critics took notice.

"Pumping Iron" won Best Documentary in Kansas City.

This is a master plan here this morning.

One day,

two friends attended a screening of "Pumping Iron,"

both named Ed.

Edward R. Pressman.

Was a film producer and--

Ed Summer.

Who owned one of the first comic bookstores

in New York.

Ed was really impressed by Schwarzenegger.

I'm not nervous at all.

My father said, "This guy is a star."

He said, "There's something about that guy.

He's got charisma.

I really think you could make a movie star out of this guy."

And he says, "What could we do?"

And Ed Summer says, "Well, what about Conan?"

And being a movie person who never read anything,

Ed Pressman says, "Who's Conan?"

To answer that, we need to go back a century.

In the early 30s, Robert E. Howard, an aspiring writer,

was looking for places to bring his writing.

And by the time he was 18 years old,

he had made his first professional sale

to a magazine called "Weird Tales."

Which was a pulp magazine.

It was mostly ghost stories

or stories about monsters, supernatural horror.

But Robert E. Howard liked to write stuff

set in medieval or ancient times.

Swashbuckling kinds of stories.

However, if he hadn't needed

to put the supernatural into his stories,

he would probably never have done anything like "Conan."

Conan offered an escape

from Robert's real-life challenges.

His mother, Hester, was rather sickly,

and she eventually developed a number of diseases.

He had spent years caring for his mother.

And in 1936, she went into a coma.

Bob asked, "How long does she have?"

And one of the nurses said, "Probably a day or two."

He took out a pistol that he had borrowed from someone,

and in his car out in the driveway in front of the house,

and shot himself in the head.

Robert E. Howard died of suicide

in June of 1936.

With Robert's passing, the IP of "Conan"

sat dormant for years

until discovered by an opportunistic fantasy fanatic.

An author called L. Sprague de Camp,

a successful writer in his own right.

Sprague said, "You know, maybe it would be a good idea

to put some of these stories together in a book."

And Sprague realized that the rights were convoluted.

Sprague decided to forge ahead anyway,

and revived Robert E. Howard's work

with the "Conan" anthologies.

At the same time,

unbeknownst there is a scholar and a fan

named Glenn Lord in Texas.

He was really taken by Robert E. Howard's poetry,

'cause Howard was a poet as well.

So he put together a book called "Always Comes Evening."

Not to be outdone,

Sprague didn't just take Howard's work,

he began to take liberties.

Sprague found all of these unfinished

or older stories that they were unpublished

in different genres.

And Sprague rewrote these to make 'em "Conan" stories.

Two publishers in different states,

and now claiming ownership of "Conan."

Who will reign supreme?

In Texas, Glenn Lord got the blessings

of the people who knew Howard the best.

And in doing so, became the literary agent

for the Howard estate,

which meant Glenn Lord would have access

to any remaining material.

He's uncovering the real thing and he's the purist.

He's saying, "Wait a minute,

why are people rewriting old stories

and claiming that they're original Howard stories

when they're not?"

But things were about

to get even more complicated

as a third publisher emerged.

Stan Lee wanted to expand the market for comics.

In 1970, Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee

and his right-hand man, Roy Thomas,

were looking for the next big thing.

Stan and I were eager to expand the market for comics

and you can't just go on doing

endless numbers of superheroes.

One genre above another

piqued Stan Lee's interest.

Sword and sorcery.

So Stan called me in one day and says,

"Have you ever read any of this?"

Roy had,

and thought that it would make great "Marvel" content,

but there were already two publishers claiming the rights.

We had no rights to adapt any of the "Conan" stories.

One of those right holders was Glenn Lord.

So I wrote him a letter. It was sort of legal.

It was some sort of a letter that I wrote.

I mean that-- You know-- It was all--

By Roy's hand movements,

legally, this was clear as mud.

...print or this and that.

It was probably a pretty crappy contract.

Conan was on his way

to the pages of Marvel Comics.

It sold pretty well the first issue.

Then about a year or so,

it became one of Marvel's biggest sellers.

That brings us back

to the "Pumping Iron" screening with the two Eds.

Ed Pressman was the son of Jack Pressman,

founder of Pressman Toys.

Pressman Toys was the first company

to make a licensing deal with Disney,

licensing "Steamboat Willie."

But rather than follow his father's footsteps

and produce toys,

Ed Pressman looked to produce movies.

Turning comic books into films.

Thanks to his pal Ed Summer.

Ed Pressman had the perfect vehicle for Schwarzenegger.

My father was in a comic bookstore

and he saw the comic book and said,

"That's Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There's just no one else to play him."

As a result,

Ed Summer got to work on a treatment

with "Conan" writer Roy Thomas.

Ed brought me in because he knew how to write scripts,

but he didn't know "Conan" that well,

so the two of us sort of teamed up.

While Ed Summer worked on the story,

Ed Pressman got to work on the rights.

Lancer Books, which is the paperback house

that had published all those "Conan" books since 1966

went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

They had some rights, and so now who has them?

An elegant solution emerged.

This entity called Conan Properties.

We had everybody who was a claimant of any kind,

all the rights went in there.

That made the movie possible to go forward.

But rights were only part of the package.

My dad was friends with George Butler,

the director of "Pumping Iron."

Through his connections,

Ed Pressman teed up a rendezvous for he and Ed Summer.

They go to Arnold and they have lunch with him.

That's good.

I think Arnold saw great possibilities

in being able to play Conan.

And Arnold really wanted to have the role.

Ed Pressman had the rights, a star,

now all he needed was a script.

My father and Oliver Stone met through John Ptak.

I told Ed I wanted him to meet Oliver Stone.

I think Oliver was a hungry writer,

not that far removed from being a taxi driver in New York.

Just as he did with Arnold,

Ed Pressman saw Oliver Stone's potential.

Ed could see that Oliver

could make this extraordinary world possible.

Oliver Stone was just so filled

with life and stories and ideas.

He ended up making a deal to write the script.

Ed's only rule: no rules.

Ed spoke to Oliver and said, "Just write it.

Don't think about budget, don't think about location.

Just let yourself go."

Just don't worry about the budget.

The worst thing you can say.

As a result,

Oliver Stone proceeded paying no mind

to the budget or the audience's patience.

Yeah, it's about three, four hours long.

Massive epic with thousands of mutant armies attacking,

and just very, very far from the "Conan"

that eventually shows up on the screen.

Ed Pressman had the rights to "Conan,"

a script and a star.

Now all he needed was a studio.

Universal got interested,

but they weren't sure about Ed's ability

to produce a major motion picture with a big budget.

What good is he then?

That was a problem. That was a big problem.

Rather than give up,

Ed began looking for a backer outside the studio system.

Dino De Laurentiis was

one of your early major foreign independent producer-buyers

that had a lot of money from wherever.

The Italian producer

was potentially Ed Pressman's last shot

of getting "Conan" made.

Dino De Laurentiis wanted very much to do it,

because he thinks he can see a franchise.

There was only one problem.

Dino fought against Arnold.

I'm afraid.

Which is a big problem.

As it turned out,

Dino had already met with Arnold for "Flash Gordon."

Arnold comes into Dino's office to talk about the movie,

and Dino tells him that he's all wrong for the part.

They were small offices and Dino had this desk.

The desk was almost as big as his office.

He's not a very tall man.

And Arnold looks at Dino De Laurentiis and says,

"What does such a little man need with such a big desk?"

Right?

And Dino immediately takes very deep offense,

and they're out in 90 seconds.

Ed Pressman had the rights,

the script, a producer.

But now did he have the star?

Ed had the rights to "Conan,"

a wild script by Oliver Stone,

and he thought he had the star lined up

until diminutive producer Dino De Laurentiis

started to look elsewhere.

A guy whose name was Sylvester Stallone.

If they started with an older Conan, it was Charles Bronson.

The casting of Arnold

would be the first test of Dino and Ed's partnership.

The greatest obstacle that Ed had

was convincing the De Laurentiis Company

Arnold should be Conan.

Tell him to stay out of the way!

Ahaha!

He knew that Arnold could play the role,

and he just believed in it.

Luckily, Ed Pressman wasn't the only believer.

We were all really happy with Arnold.

He was the best guy for the job.

Eventually Dino relented.

I think he finally figured

that there weren't too many actors

that had Arnold's physique.

You're so big and so well-grown.

With the team in place,

it was time to talk to investors.

Dino had an overall deal at Universal,

so he was obligated to deal with Universal

with whatever he did.

Dino's first priority? Finding a director.

This is where John Milius comes in.

He was an up-and-coming, bright, strong visionary director.

While John Milius' directorial work

may have been a little obscure,

by age of 35, Milius was already responsible

for some of cinema's greatest scenes.

You've got to ask yourself one question,

"Do I feel lucky?"

Well, do you, punk?

That's a John Milius line.

It was called "Apocalypse Now."

And John wrote the script.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

And everything that's good in that movie was John Milius.

The USS Indianapolis speech for "Jaws."

Didn't see the first shark for about half an hour.

Tiger, 13-footer.

All highly regarded films.

Needless to say, Milius was eager

to take a pass at Oliver Stone's abundant script.

He wanted a script that was more violent.

And that violence would prove

to be an ideological difference.

Oliver, having come out of Vietnam,

was so critical of war and so critical of violence.

And on the other side, you have Milius,

who loved guns and loved this kind of outlaw philosophy.

So Oliver was dropped like a stone.

- The winner is Oliver Stone! - But don't worry,

things kind of worked out for him.

Thank you for this Cinderella ending.

As for Milius' franchise aspirations?

Four to five films. Begin it with "Conan the Barbarian."

End it with "Beneath My Sandaled Feet,"

which was going to be about King Conan

and eventually his death.

That was John's vision for what it was gonna be.

With the first film script complete,

Milius was ready to roll camera on "Conan the Barbarian."

Well, almost ready.

Ed Pressman had the rights.

For once, Ed Pressman had the high ground.

They had to buy out the guy

who had all the rights, which was Ed Pressman.

I think he made a lot of money.

Ed got paid very well.

Conan had a new regime,

but the struggle for creative control

was only just beginning.

"Flash Gordon" has come out a year before,

and it has the score by Queen,

the premiere rock group going on.

So Dino is obsessed with getting a rock band

for "Conan the Barbarian."

But John said that he wanted

a more traditional romantic score.

But Dino refused to give up

on his rock and roll fantasy.

"So John," he says. "Hey, who you want?

You tell me, you tell me anybody, and I get you for them."

Milius looks at him and says, "I want Jim Morrison."

"I'll get Jim Morrison for you!"

Jim Morrison had been dead for eight years.

Milius doesn't crack a smile,

and he goes out to try to get Jim Morrison,

and just realized he's been pranked.

He's not happy.

Milius wanted to take risks.

Right from the beginning,

he said, "I don't want to have established stars

as leads in the picture.

I wanna have established athletes."

Joel Silver, the producer Arnold introduced me to,

was impressed by my size and asked me to participate.

But then John said, "I need a good Viking name."

So I thought about my own name and I said, "Thorgrim."

But for the role of Conan's sidekick,

John Milius did not want to cast a weightlifter.

Who are you?

Dinner for wolves.

Gerry Lopez was a surfer. He was not an actor.

Something Gerry Lopez was well aware of.

John Milius was a good friend of mine,

and he wrote a part in the script for me,

and when I read the script,

I said "This is way too big a role, I can't act."

And he said, "Don't worry, neither can Arnold."

Coach Milius continued to draft athletes

from every sport.

My mentor was Bob Fosse.

I did two Broadway shows for him

and then the film "All That Jazz" for him.

Which was where she caught John Milius' eye.

I had never really gone out for film.

This was a first experience.

She was perfect for the part. She was a dancer.

She moved well.

I said to John Milius, "What were you thinking?"

You hired a bodybuilder, a dancer,

and a surfer to star in the film.

I think the three of us were like the three bumpkins.

We just really kind of,

"Well, we're here, what do we do next?"

Do you wanna live forever?

That's not to say the film was without thespians.

They needed someone like James Earl Jones

that had some clout in filmmaking.

Who now is your father if it is not me,

my son?

My son.

No!

I mean, the best.

I just would talk to him just to hear the voice.

I wish to speak to you now.

Rounding out the cast, one of the greats.

Is there a dagger such as this in her hand for me?

Max von Sydow.

I cast you out!

In name of the Father and of the-

Son.

When we were in any of the scenes with them,

I mean we were just like

all three of us hanging there with our mouths open.

I salute you.

Actor or athlete,

the cast had one thing in common.

All of them were fans of Robert E. Howard's books.

They all knew what the project was.

While the cast knew the material,

no one could have known what was coming next.

Tanks rolled into the street

and there was a coup to try to overthrow the king.

What daring! What outrageousness!

Director John Milius

was ready to roll on "Conan the Barbarian."

All that was left was for Dino De Laurentiis

to decide where.

There had been some location scouts for a place to shoot it,

and one of them was Yugoslavia.

It looked like it was gonna be a really great place.

The locations were spectacular.

The dramatic landscapes of Yugoslavia

were a perfect stand-in for Conan's homeland, Cimmeria.

We got all the crew there.

We had to bring in a lot of people

Among them was Ron Cobb,

a concept artist, famed for "Star Wars," "Alien,"

and a never-used E.T. design for Steven Spielberg.

He came over and got us and said

that he wanted to keep working, but it was getting dark.

While Ron didn't have a curfew,

he did have a problem.

And they had forgotten to put the electricity

in the building.

There was not a huge infrastructure.

Infrastructure being only one of the challenges

of timing in the socialist republic.

There were certain scenes like the orgy scene

and the some of the sexual scenes

that they really didn't want us to do there.

Everything needed to be approved

by the state-run film commission.

And then there was oversight.

Ron Cobb had to have this Russian monitor

with him at all times.

Which included location-scouting.

And the Russian accused him of checking the terrain,

seeing if tanks could get through this area.

And Ron's just going,

"Yeah, we don't wanna make a movie here."

So at the end we decided we moved out.

Come, let's leave this place.

A setback not only for the budget,

but for the schedule.

We had to stop the production for a period,

I don't remember, three or four months.

They find that Madrid wants to make a deal

with Universal and Dino.

Dino had a long history with Spain.

He used to say it was the best light in the world.

But it appeared production had jumped

from the Yugoslav frying pan into the Spanish fire.

One night we were having dinner across from the Palace.

Tanks rolled into the street,

and there was a coup to try to overthrow the king.

This time the tanks weren't a paranoid fantasy.

We were a little worried.

But John Milius knew exactly how to calm

his team's rattled nerves.

John called and he goes,

"My shotgun's in my room, go get it."

But before Gerry could lock and load,

the coup ended as quickly as it began.

But it didn't work and finally the tanks went away

and we had dinner.

As production kicked off,

Arnold would feel the pressure

of being on the top of the call sheet.

I felt like the first time a studio, Universal Studio,

put all this money behind me to do a big movie.

Filming would test Arnold mentally and physically.

The very first setup on the very first day is Arnold--

escaping from the wolves.

Well, the wolves were not wolves, of course,

they were German shepherds that were painted,

and they were trained to go after the coat.

They put chunks of meat on the back of this bearskin rug.

He did not run fast enough.

And the dog trainers had like no control over these dogs.

Arnold's literally running for his life.

The unused wide shot shows

just how terrified Arnold was of the ravenous dog-wolves.

Oh! They grabbed the coat, but,

he was already about five or six feet

up the side of this rock.

Then they pulled him into the rock.

Ow, ow, ow!

And he landed pretty hard on his back,

and they went, "Oh my God, we've killed Arnold."

God damn it!

Milius came over after Arnold was hurt,

and he says, "Are you okay?"

And he says, "Yeah, I guess so."

And he says, "Now you know what it feels like

to suffer like Conan suffers," and he walks away.

While filming the Tree of Woe sequence,

Arnold would have his revenge on the animals of Spain.

Arnold really bit it and I think it surprised everybody.

Well, the vulture was certainly surprised.

Yeah, I couldn't believe he did that,

'cause I was right there next to him.

That was actually a real vulture.

They got away with a lot of stuff in Spain

that you'd never get away with in the U.S.

But not everyone is so sure

It was the animatronic one.

Further investigation of Vulturegate

would prove both to be true accounts.

I have talked to four people that were on that set.

The one that he bit was animatronic,

but the one that he spit out

and he starts choking afterwards and spitting out feathers?

That was a real vulture.

There was nothing Arnold or John Milius

wouldn't do to make "Conan" a success,

including gallons of claret.

John liked blood.

John would walk around with a gigantic container of blood

with a garden sprayer,

and the extras thought he was out of his mind.

Why is he spraying everything

- with blood? - ...lakes of blood.

It was a dangerous set,

especially for rookie actors

unfamiliar with the stunts and sword play.

Well, the Atlantean Sword and the Master Sword

were the two specific weapons

that were hand-ground, handmade, hand-designed by Ron Cobb

to the specifications of John Milius.

John's demand for authenticity

was about to hit home for the inexperienced actors.

John Milius didn't want a cardboard sword.

They were actually using the real deal,

and those things weighed like about 15, 20, 30 pounds.

Sandahl Bergman trained with a sword expert,

but John wanted to keep it real

with real swords in action on set.

What could possibly go wrong?

There was one moment, we were doing a sword fight.

We were going after the princess.

It was an elaborate scene, which takes time.

I remember that we have to--

You know, about the sun going down,

we gotta get this shot.

And I looked at the actor, he just blanked in the routine.

Blanking in a dance routine could be dangerous.

Blanking in a sword fight could be deadly.

So he just did one wrong move.

Blood was everywhere.

John Milius was under the gun

to complete filming the raid on Thulsa Doom,

as all eyes turned to Sandahl Bergman.

We were doing a sword fight.

It was right before she cuts off the head

of that character in the orgy scene.

Sandahl had memorized every thrust and parry.

I looked at the actor and I saw him blank.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he froze.

So he just did one wrong move.

My sword did not have finger guards on it

and it sliced my finger.

All I remember is everybody racing toward me

and saying, "Don't look, don't look."

I was right next to her and blood was everywhere.

I severed all the tendons in my index finger.

Dancers are like athletes, pain becomes our best friend.

While Sandahl didn't fear pain,

there was one scene that kept her up at night.

Do you know what horrors lie beyond that wall?

I was very nervous about Arnold's and my love scene.

She told Arnold, "I want to practice,

so can I come and practice with you?"

I'd never done anything like that before.

You should be proud of your body.

Arnold's just laughing, just going...

..."Yeah, we can practice if you want."

Sandahl had more than one reason to be nervous.

I don't know if I should talk about this,

but I was dating Terry Leonard.

Conan's stunt choreographer.

It's just uncomfortable.

Having a new boyfriend watch your first love scene--

Not ideal.

It's like John talking in the background,

"Okay, roll her over.

Okay, her butt's showing too much.

Grab the pillow."

And Arnold and I would try to-- And we'd break up laughing.

Cut! You know?

John sent us off the set and said, "Get it together."

Well, Arnold laughed it up.

Tensions continued to build between John Milius

and Dino De Laurentiis.

One of the last things they shot

was Thulsa Doom's Mountain of Power.

But Thulsa Doom's Mountain of Power

was feeling more like Thulsa Doom's

handful of alkaline batteries.

John wanted it to be more spectacular

and needed more money for Thulsa Doom's castle.

He needed a million dollar more.

Milius prepared for aggressive negotiations,

inviting Sven and anyone over 300 pounds to the meeting.

So he asked the Danes to be in his office,

the next day, standing behind his desk

Making Sven a bodybuilder/actor/enforcer.

John told Dino that he needed one more million.

And Dino didn't like to hear that.

I mean with those guys standing behind him,

how could anybody say no?

A pittance to protect you from evil.

I am evil.

The next day, six gentlemen came

with two suitcases each with a million dollars.

So John would build that castle he liked for Thulsa Doom.

That's John Milius right there, a hundred percent.

Between these guys, they're all about who's more macho.

That is strength, boy.

I'm stronger than you and no and I can do this.

And it's so ridiculous.

Turns out getting the million was the easy part.

I remember we couldn't find the location

to do this Mountain of Power.

And so then somebody came up with,

"Why don't we build this huge staircase

going up into the mountain?"

That someone was conceptual artist

and production designer Ron Cobb.

We were worried about putting 2,000 people

on that stairwell.

But Dino was less concerned about hypotheticals

and more concerned with Milius' actual plans.

He's gonna throw this pot up there

and it's going to burn down.

Needless to say, Dino wasn't pleased.

Dino didn't want to burn everything down he had financed.

Buzz Feitshans had more practical concern.

Oh, I was worried about setting the country on fire.

But Milius wouldn't bow to Dino that easily.

John Milius dug his heels in.

John wanted it to be more spectacular

And said, "Look, we've come this far,

we've done this much."

This is the ending of our film.

And so Dino had agreed.

Which meant it was time

to break out the kettle of fire.

And decides to take this burning pot

that's on the end of a chain

and throw it up into Doom's lair.

Obviously, Arnold didn't throw it up there.

They had this pot launched up,

and the set was set up to start burning

when this pot made it over the top of the ledge.

But the pot fell short,

and landed in an area that would completely not burn,

it was concrete.

Fire won't burn there, no fire at all.

Unfortunately, the effects team

never planned on the kettle falling short.

They set this thing to burn

so it just gets engulfed in flames.

So there was nothing they could do.

Once they set it on fire,

they had to film it being set on fire.

It burned down.

And just like that,

the million-dollar structure was gone.

And with it, production.

It was actually on the end of the movie.

The very last day of the movie.

Filming may have wrapped,

but the battle between De Laurentiis and Milius

was just getting started.

Dino wanted a PG, and John wouldn't do it.

With the filming of "Conan" complete,

Arnold's future in film was now at the mercy of John Milius

and Dino de Laurentiis' rocky relationship

as they moved into post-production.

I remember this constant different vision of things.

It was widely observed

that there was either bad blood or something.

Grant me revenge!

The violence, the studio and Dino didn't like.

John and Dino came to an agreement.

John had first cut.

You go first.

But Milius' first cut

only added to Dino's concerns.

The movie was too long.

This wasn't a matter of creative differences.

The theaters, if it's a three-and-a-half-hour film,

they can only run it three times a day.

So it reduces how much they can make.

So you try and keep it in that two-hour window.

And Dino was gonna sit in

and make sure that that happened.

Dino went as far as bringing an editing bay

into his office.

And we would bring the film up there

and he would look at it.

All of a sudden, here comes the windshield wiper:

Out, out, out, out!

With the runtime down,

there was still the issue of all that blood.

At the time, the ratings board was much more aggressive

in making sure that there wasn't too much blood.

He kept upping the blood count.

So that the stuff he really wanted to get in.

would get past the censors.

He wanted as hard an R...

Only you can judge

if your children are mature and intelligent

enough to witness the frank and revealing scenes

in this film.

...without tripping over into X.

So we were taking frames out of each shot of the blood,

but then that wasn't enough.

So we started grading the blood, making it less red.

And after countless revisions--

We got an R.

Which meant it was time

to set up a test screening.

In attendance, Universal's president.

Ned Tanen and Dino.

And they were sure that the audience would hate the movie:

The movie was too violent, the movie was too bloody.

They hated the movie.

Ned and Dino were preparing less for a screening

and more for a funeral.

We arrive at the theater, we see a line around the block

going around twice,

and they were all bikers, really rough guys,

long hair, chains, leathers.

It was an audience you don't want to disappoint.

And the audience was going nuts.

And what I never forget is Dino and Ned Tanen

looking at each other and saying,

"What the hell is going on here?

What part of this did we not get?"

From a budget of 20 million,

"Conan the Barbarian" pulled in

nearly $70 million worldwide,

which would be over 230 million today.

The film was massively successful.

As for the dancer-turned-actress,

"Conan" was more than just a hit.

I got a Golden Globe from that film.

Sandahl Bergman. Ho!

I wanna thank all the people that were involved

with "Conan," especially John Milius,

who when everybody said no, he said yes.

As for Arnold, life would never be the same.

Really, I believed launched his career.

I felt pretty good about myself.

I was traveling from country to country promoting "Conan."

So it was a great time.

He started to be taken seriously.

It paved his way.

Arnold had found his place, he found his footing.

And it felt like that there is a slight chance

that I could get away from the muscle movies

and do maybe something where I wear clothes.

Not yet though,

because the film's success meant

John Milius could proceed with his five-film plan,

and Dino had a plan to give the film

an even bigger audience.

Dino wanted a PG.

Rather than double down on the sex and violence,

Dino wanted to go in another direction.

We should make this a family movie.

Going from a near-X rating to PG-13

is enough to give anyone whiplash.

I tend not to try and watch "Conan the Destroyer."

The sequel failed

to recapture the magic at the box office,

pulling in less than half of "Conan the Barbarian."

Arnold, I think was very disappointed

with "Conan the Destroyer."

And wore his crown upon a troubled brow.

He thought that it was kind of a step down.

For the first time, Arnold's film career

was on the downturn.

But in a recently completed film, he assured audiences--

I'll be back.